Seattle Folk Festival

Its clear that, like its long-running peer the Northwest Folklife Festival, the inaugural Seattle Folk Festival defines the word folk in the broadest (and truest) definition: music by, for and about the people. That can mean anything from chanteuse Alela Dianes acoustic guitar-backed trill, to De Temps Antans traditional Quebecois music, to Boston based emcee Mr. Lif. Though you might not dig absolutely everything you hear, the beauty of line-ups like these is that they force you to check out styles of music you might never have considered before because it sounds lame (the word traditional being a turn-off to those of us who suffered through high school chamber choir). Go on, expand your horizons. WIth The Nils Olof Soderback Band, Juan Barco & Paul Anastasio, The Hurricane Ridge Runners, Cahalen Morrison & Eli West, Jim Page & The Spokes. SARA BRICKNER